The cancellation of the so-called "March for Sharia" which was to have been held last Saturday by Islam4UK (al-Muhajiroun's latest incarnation) should be viewed as a clear victory for all those who were fed up with the group's inflammatory antics.

A couple of weeks ago on Cif I discussed the planned march. It had been set to start outside the Houses of Parliament, where al-Muhajiroun said they would call for the dismantling of our democracy, and end at Trafalgar Square, where they said they would hold a rally to demand that "authority is handed over to the Muslims".

They also helpfully posted images of Buckingham Palace ("Buckingham mosque") and Trafalgar Square on their website depicting what they would look like under their vision of the sharia.

It was all typically insane and provocative stuff transparently designed to undermine social cohesion and to set communities against each other. Since my Cif piece was published calling for a counter-demonstration against the provocateurs from al-Muhajiroun and requesting those who were proud to live in a multi-faith and multicultural society to join us, the response had been very encouraging.

The next day I was contacted by someone who had very kindly designed a nice Muslims4UK logo for us and someone else had set up a Muslims4UK facebook group to help publicise the counter-demo. It quickly attracted hundreds of members. The day after that, a friend had got a basic website up and running for us. The only actual expense I incurred was for the design and printing of the three-metre-long banner which was meant to be draped over the railings at our counter-demo.

The day after I handed in my official "notification to hold a procession" form to the police, they contacted me to say that a number of groups had registered to hold counter-protests against al-Muhajiroun. It was apparent that had they gone ahead, al-Muhajiroun would have been significantly outnumbered by their opponents, despite the dishonest bluster on their website claiming "overwhelming support from the Muslim community".

And what are we to say of the role played in all this by some of our tabloids, particularly, the Daily Express and its sister paper, the Daily Star? Were it not for the tabloids, al-Muhajiroun's followers would be recognised for what they are: a minuscule group of unemployed and sad fantasists of no real interest to anyone except perhaps the security services. With the help of the Express group, however, al-Muhajiroun have acquired a national profile and notoriety massively out of proportion to their tiny base. The Express actually told its readers last week that "up to 5,000 extremists" were expected to take part in the march. It was a ludicrous number as anyone familiar with al-Muhajiroun's many previous publicity stunts would have quickly confirmed.

At work I now have colleagues who approach me asking why Muslims are coercing them into changing their lifestyles. When I ask them to tell me about what it is that they have actually been forced to give up or change, I get blank looks in return. It is obvious that they have unthinkingly bought into the anti-Muslim narrative that the Express and Co have been relentlessly peddling for a number of years now and evidently with some success.

This free publicity appears to be plainly important to the followers of al-Muhajiroun and their sense of self-esteem and has also given them the perfect means by which to amplify their hate-filled message and further their goal of polarising communities against each other.

It is no coincidence that the appearance and rise of the openly anti-Muslim English Defence League (EDL) occurred soon after al-Muhajiroun's last publicity "success": its disgraceful protest in Luton against the return of soldiers from the tour of duty in Iraq last March. Since that time we have seen a number of arson attacks on mosques in Luton, Bishop's Stortford, Woolwich and Sunderland.

What we have here is a vicious circle of mischief-makers each seeming to reinforce the other. Al-Muhajiroun want the publicity. The Express group wants a Muslim bogeyman. The EDL just seem to want trouble.

Oh, and finally, here is a graphic of the banner we had designed for our counter-demo that never was. The rascals from al-Muhajiroun owe me £165.